Panda 2.2 – Don’t Poke the Panda

Just when you thought you had heard enough about Panda, whispers of a new update to the algorithm began a few weeks ago when webmasters began reporting more ranking fluctuations and drops in visitor numbers to their websites.

Due to the previous releases of Panda and the chaos that resulted you can’t blame people for being a little shell-shocked and perhaps jumping to conclusions. While Google did not confirm the release, Matt Cutts stated on June 6th that Google would be releasing version 2.2 of the Panda algorithm update “soon”.

Several threads on Webmaster World and Google Webmaster Help forums show webmasters claiming that the recent wild fluctuations they have been experiencing can only be due to another major algorithm update. While many webmasters are claiming that their sites are getting hit hard and taking losses in rank and traffic similar to the first releases of Panda, the main difference now is that some sites are showing gains and experiencing other positive growth.

This may be a result of the new algorithms ability to rank or to penalize sites for poor content, or it may be that sites that have been taking proactive approaches such as cleaning up low value content and hiding other thin pages from Google have begun benefitting from their efforts.

As I have said in previous posts regarding the Panda updated, by playing nice with the Panda by producing great content on your site and not poking the bear with poor content, we all benefit. Site owners are forced to create better quality content for their users and SERPs become more accurate and filled less with webspam.

Check out some of our previous blog posts for some helpful techniques and strategies for surviving the Google Panda Algorithm update:

Have You Fallen Post-Panda and Can’t Get Up?

Survive Post-Panda By Writing Awesome Content

Dr. Nick’s Post-Panda Prescription